


You Are My Sunshine

by somerandomwritingstuff



Series: You Are My Sunshine [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), Spider-Man - All Media Types
Genre: Bittersweet, Coping, Coping with Death, Death, Gen, Peter is dead, Sad, Songfic, in my opinion at least, never done one of those before but yah know, so i decided to write it as a fic to make me even more sad, so thanks commenter now im sad, someone replied to a comment on a writing prompt on pinterest which made me sad, tagging that too, which is the main part of the fic so don't read if you get sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-05
Updated: 2020-09-05
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:00:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,129
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26293786
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/somerandomwritingstuff/pseuds/somerandomwritingstuff
Summary: When Peter Parker is dying, he knows he can't do anything to stop it. So instead of calling for help, he calls Happy to give his patrol report just as usual.Now, the people around him have to cope with their sunshine having been taken from them.
Relationships: (mentioned) - Relationship, Happy Hogan/May Parker (Spider-Man), May Parker (Spider-Man) & Peter Parker, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Series: You Are My Sunshine [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1917157
Comments: 17
Kudos: 147





	You Are My Sunshine

**Author's Note:**

> now with a prequel (Dusk)  
> (it doesn't matter what order you read them in though, both make complete sense on their own)

**You Are My Sunshine**

_The other night dear, as I lay sleeping_

_I dreamed I held you in my arms_

Tony had never thought it could come this far. Sure, superhero business had its risks and dangers, but Spider-Man didn’t even take on the Big Baddies™ as he would call them; he was just helping little old ladies cross the street and stopping the occasional thief on the run. He wasn’t doing anything big. He was just a kid.

Tony couldn’t stop replaying the message Happy had forwarded him.

“Hey, Happy!”

The kid sounded so cheerful and _normal_.

“Just calling in to report. Quiet evening, to be honest.”

Not as quiet as Peter now.

“The churro lady is a regular now. I have regulars, isn’t that amazing?” A harsh breath was heard. “Oof, sorry, Hap, overexerted myself a little, that’s why I’m stopping so soon today.”

Did he even realize what he was saying?

“Anyways, hey, I know there’s this thing starting between you and Aunt May, and, not that you’d need my blessing, but I’m glad for you two!” Peter now audibly had trouble breathing, and yet he continued on as if nothing was happening.

Why didn’t he ask them for help?

“Cause like, I haven’t seen Aunt May this happy since Uncle Ben died.” Tony didn’t know if the kid was shivering because of the memory of his uncle’s death or because of his own.

Why had he disabled Karen’s safety mechanisms?

“And I like that.” Peter took a few breaths. “I like how happy she is with you, Happy.”

Why wasn’t his superhealing working right?

“So thanks, Hap, for, you know, making her happy. Hey,” and there it came, in-between ragged breaths and a shivering voice pretending to be normal, “I know you don’t like bothering Mr. Stark with my patrol reports, but could you-” Peter was interrupted by a heavy, wrong cough, “could you tell Mr. Stark that- that I’m really-” another long cough, “oh man, sorry, must’ve gotten a cold. That I’m really grateful for everything he’s done? Not just Spider-Man, everything. Stark Industries, New York, Iron Man, everything. He’s a hero in and out of the suit. Just, tell him that, please, Happy. And tell Aunt May you love her, I mean I love her, I mean- Just tell her we love her. Okay, sorry Happy, I gotta go now. Bye!”

And with that, the cough-ridden, breathy rambles of one Peter Benjamin Parker cut off.

And with that, so did his life.

_But when I awoke, dear, I was mistaken_

_So I hung my head and cried_

Tony couldn’t hear this recording without crying. He couldn’t even think of Peter without crying. How could he have failed him so hard? How could he not have prevented this? How could he not have foreseen all of this coming together? He had tried so hard to make this silly kid thinking superhero business is fun or, or duty, _safe_. He had tried so hard and it hadn’t been enough. He should have made Karen more failsafe; he should have implemented more safety measures; he should have checked up on the kid personally; _he should have been there that night._ He will never forgive himself for not being there. He will never forgive himself for not giving the kid the feeling he could come to him. He knew Happy would never forgive himself for having his phone on silent and not picking up. Hell, probably even Friday was feeling guilty for not having directed the call to Tony when Peter’s voice started shivering or he started coughing.

They all knew they couldn’t have known.

But that didn’t make losing Peter easier.

_You are my sunshine, my only sunshine_

_You make me happy, when skies are grey_

_You’ll never know, dear, how much I love you_

_Please don’t take my sunshine away_

They buried him as Spider-Man. The actual funeral was held for Peter Parker, but his gravestone said Spider-Man. He died as Spider-Man, and he deserved the people who came to honour him. To grieve him.

They didn’t make his secret identity public; he would have never wanted his family and friends to be in danger without him being able to be there, but the public needed to be able to grieve and honour him.

So they buried him as Spider-Man. 

They didn’t know if he would have wanted it. Peter never told them. But his answer would probably have been a perfect example of his young enthusiasm, and he would have simply said he won’t die. He thought he had so much more time. They all thought they had so much more time.

Maybe time had different plans.

_I’ll always love you and make you happy_

_If you will only say the same_

Aunt May helped decide if the grave should be for Spider-Man or Peter Parker. And even if she did sometimes regret the decision, even if she did wish he could be buried with his family, even if she did wish she had a place to go to like Ben’s, she sometimes watched his grave from the far side of Ben’s grave, and she saw someone at his grave telling him about their day, or about how they had admired him, still do, or about how he did good. And when she saw Queens go to Spider-Man like Spider-Man had gone to Queens, she knew she had made the right decision. And Peter would agree.

_But if you leave me and love another_

_You’ll regret it all someday_

Of course, she had also seen people argue at the grave. Some people even blamed him for leaving. They would always cry and try to unleash it all as anger towards him, but ultimately, they were just sad.

That was underneath everything in Queens in those days: sadness.

And anger hiding sadness was just as natural as numbness hiding it.

And ultimately, what they all needed was help.

It wasn’t always Aunt May. But word didn’t need to spread around for seemingly all of Queens to know that if they visited Spider-Man, someone would help them.

In a way, it was like his spirit was still there, helping people. Whoever needed help just had to ask Spider-Man. In a way, nothing had really changed, had it?

Except he couldn’t look out for them anymore. So the people of Queens did. They looked out for each other, just like Spider-Man would have looked out for them. And sure, they didn’t have superpowers, but soon enough word spread that you didn’t commit crimes in Queens. For Spidey.

_You are my sunshine, my only sunshine_

_You make me happy, when skies are grey_

_You’ll never know, dear, how much I love you_

_Please don’t take my sunshine away._


End file.
